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Friday, September 02, 2011

So why is Pelfrey’s habit more noticeable than anyone else’s? For one thing, few pitchers lick their fingers as often as he does. And no one does it with such vigor. “Mike is a little bit over the top,” Dickey said.

Earlier this season, Dickey said he saw Washington Nationals pitcher Livan Hernandez mock Pelfrey by imitating his lick from the opposing dugout. Last week, when a fan was heckling Pelfrey as he warmed up in Philadelphia, the first thing Pelfrey said ...

We surveyed Yankees fans on Twitter, at work, and even in got into a thorough discussion with one at a local sandwich shop. Opinions varied. We heard from those who thought he was good, who thought he was average, and who thought he was bad. Defense is tough to measure.

BIS also tracks what it calls Good Fielding Plays and Defensive Misplays & Errors, in which it tags plays into approximately 30 positive (GFPs) and 50 ...

Of course! How soon we forget the supreme outrage St. Louis felt back in ‘77…when The Moldy Dogs took off for L.A.!!

But ownership has thrown around the term “dry powder” several times, referring to the money they’d have to spend if Pujols leaves and the will to do so. Shortstop has been a problem position for years in St. Louis, with Brendan Ryan’s 2009 breakout the only bright spot since David Eckstein left town. What if the Cardinals went after Jose Reyes? It’s entirely possible that Reyes ...

One of the subplots to the Cardinals 2011 season has been their willingness to sacrifice defense for offense at several key positions. The Cardinals have not been a good defensive team this season. Forget the numbers, use your eyes and you’ll see that. Many games have been lost because of plays not made (PNMs*) and extra bases given (XBGs*) and other faulty fundamentals (OOPS+*).

In some fashion this offseason, the Giants will probably make Tim Lincecum the first pitcher ever to receive a multi-million-dollar premium because he couldn’t win 20 games. They owe him that much, and Matt Cain, as well. Someday, they may have to pay the same compensatory damages to Madison Bumgarner.

But for the moment, Lincecum’s concerns take precedence. The look of resignation that briefly crossed his face late in Monday’s 7-0 loss to the Cubs was both ...

The audience insult factor within Yankees TV and radio broadcasts remains tough to endure.

Last Friday on YES, Ken Singleton, during a replay, took a shot at the Orioles’ Robert Andino for jogging through what Andino thought would be a home run, finishing with a double instead of what Singleton said should have been a triple. As noted in this space on Sunday morning, a good on Singleton.

This may sound odd coming from a writer who supported Kirk Gibson’s 76-RBI MVP award for the champion Dodgers in 1988, but unless a player is clearly the one difference-maker on a playoff team, I believe the MVP should go to the best guy, period. In fact, instructions on the baseball writers’ MVP ballot read, “The MVP need not come from a division winner or other player qualifiers.”

Asked if known steroids users should be allowed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Murphy said no.

“It looks like the voters have made that decision in a lot of ways. It seems like if you’re connected to it, whether it’s proven or not, it looks like they’ve made a pretty strong statement,” Murphy said.

[Germany] Schaefer rolled a slow one down the first base line to Hal Chase. The latter was about to tag Schaefer out, but “Germany” had an inspiration. He put on the reverse and turned back towards home, with Chase after him. “Germany” touched home, but didn’t stop. He set sail for third, Chase still in pursuit. After rounding third and aiming towards second, the situation proved too much for him. Holding his aching sides, he stumbled and fell to ...

DETROIT | It wasn’t quite a called shot, but Royals right fielder Jeff Francoeur, after entering Thursday with 999 career hits, vowed to get No. 1,000 in his first at-bat against the Tigers at Comerica Park.

Francoeur fulfilled his pledge driving an 0-1 pitch from Detroit rookie Jacob Turner just fair over the left-field wall for a two-run homer in the second inning. It was the first salvo in the Royals’ 11-8 victory over the Tigers.

Thursday, September 01, 2011

It’s easy to see why the Wilpons may have done this. From their perspective, Einhorn was the distasteful little guy they were compelled to do business with to get through what they were hoping would be a rough patch. Yes, they’d made a deal with him that would let him take the Mets from them if things failed to pick up in the next couple of years, but that was a technicality. It was an affront that Einhorn was so openly, humiliatingly, betting on them to fail.

But, the media, and possibly MLB, slipped on Crane’s background. After all, he was on the precipice of owning the Astros in 2008 when he backed out of the deal with McLane. He was part of number of suitors for the Chicago Cubs in 2009. And, last year, he quickly married up with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to be part of the bankruptcy auction process that had them pitted against a group assembled by Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg to own the Texas Rangers.

Frank McCourt has been offered $1.2 billion to sell the Dodgers, The Times has learned.

The bid is headed by Los Angeles Marathon founder Bill Burke and funded in part by Chinese investors, according to a letter sent to McCourt on Tuesday. The letter was disclosed to The Times by two people familiar with its content but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The proposed sale price would set a record for a Major League Baseball team.

*This notable for being, I think, the first team a Championship side has played in Europe since Millwall in 2004-05

And of course, let’s not forget that West Ham looks to continue their strong start to the season, hosting Portsmouth (Sept. 10), Peterborough (Sept. 24) and Ipswich Town (Sept. 27). Hammers should be hoping for ...

“I am disappointed to announce that I will not be purchasing an ownership interest in the New York Mets baseball team at this time. It is clear that it will not be possible for me to consummate the transaction on the terms that the Sterling-Mets organization and I originally agreed to several months ago. The extensive nature of changes that were proposed to me at the last minute has made a successful transaction impossible.

But was Brady Anderson’s 1996 a miracle? Is Jose Bautista’s ascension? Voltaire wrote on the subject of miracles in his Dictionnaire Philosophique, defining a miracle as “the violation of those divine and eternal laws. If there is an eclipse of the sun at full moon, or if a dead man walks two leagues carrying his head in his arms, we call that a miracle.” This is the ultimate condemnation of Brady Anderson and Jose ...

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday dropped all the remaining charges against Barry Bonds, days after a judge upheld the slugger’s conviction on an obstruction of justice count.

The U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco filed court papers informing U.S. District Judge Susan Illston it was dismissing the three charges of making false statements still pending against Bonds, Major League Baseball’s all-time home runs leader. A jury deadlocked on the three ...

If you feel guilty for falling asleep on your couch as you watch the Yankees play the Boston Red Sox, don’t. Mark Teixeira forgives you.

“It’s brutal,” said Teixeira, the Yankees’ first baseman. “I can’t stand playing a nine-inning game in four hours. It’s not baseball. I don’t even know how to describe it. If I was a fan, why would I want to come watch people sitting around and talking back and forth, going to the mound, 2-0 sliders in the dirt? Four-hour ...

The National Baseball Commission to-day not only rejected every demand made upon it by the American Association, but went further in stating that if the American Association decided not to operate under the rules of organized baseball teams would be placed in every city on that circuit. While no mention of a league to do battle with the American Association was made, it was implied to an extend that could not be misunderstood.

In this tradition-bound sport, in which managers wear the same uniforms as the players and Cracker Jack can still be bought at concession stands, a hazing ritual that has gone on for years seems to have reached a new level of absurdity at major league ballparks: rookie relievers are being forced to wear schoolgirl backpacks — gaudy in color, utterly unmanly — to transport gear.

“Everybody laughs at me,” said Bryan Shaw, a 23-year-old rookie reliever for the Arizona Diamondbacks. ...

Billy Lyle “BJ” Wallace Jr., 40, and Amber Sheree McKenzie, 29, were being held in Baldwin County Corrections Center as of Wednesday, both charged with first-degree manufacturing of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Wallace, a Monroeville native, pitched for the U.S. team in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and the Montreal Expos picked him third in that year’s amateur draft, signing the left-hander ...

In fact, no rookie closer has ever closed like Kimbrel. Certainly none have ever done it better.

When the Braves’ 23-year-old fireballer closed out Atlanta’s 3-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday at Turner Field, he recorded his 41st save of the season, setting the major league rookie saves record.

The previous mark of 40 had been set only last season by the Rangers’ Neftali Feliz, coincidentally, ...

Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos continued shaping the future of the franchise on Tuesday by acquiring seven international free agents from Central and South America.

“Our commitment to Latin America, our commitment to get the best available players in Latin America, has been in existence now for quite some time,” Marco Paddy, Toronto’s director of Latin America operations, said on an afternoon conference call.

- Fitch Ratings has assigned an ‘A-’ to Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Club Trust Securitization consisting of $70 million series 5 term notes (due 2019), $83.1 million series 6 term notes (due 2021) and $46.9 million series 7 term notes (due 2021). Additionally, Fitch has affirmed the ‘A-’ rating to the outstanding $645 million term notes (series 1 - 4) and the outstanding $200 million syndicated revolving credit facility. The Rating Outlook is Stable.